Home > Press Releases > About > Media Room > Press Releases > FIRST MEMBER OF CONGRESS... Font size:
Tell a friend
FIRST MEMBER OF CONGRESS TAKES “DO NOT ROBO CALL” PLEDGE
Monday, February 11, 2008
FIRST MEMBER OF CONGRESS TAKES “DO NOT ROBO CALL” PLEDGE
Representative Foxx (R-NC) Signs Pledge Promising Not to Conduct “Robo” Calls to Constituents Registered at National Political Do Not Contact Registry
Washington, D.C. – Monday, February 11, 2008 – U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx (R-5-NC) today announced that she pledges not to conduct “robo” calls to voters in her district who have registered their phone number with the National Political Do Not Contact (NPDNC) registry at StopPoliticalCalls.org. Rep. Foxx is the first Member of Congress to take the “Do Not Robo Call” pledge since the non-profit Citizens for Civil Discourse launched the list last October. Rep. Foxx is leading the efforts in Congress to legislate a political “do not call” list and last year introduced H.R. 248, the Robo Calls Off Phones (Robo COP) Act.
“It is a travesty that people can sign up for the Do Not Call list for commercial calls but political calls are exempt,” said Representative Foxx. “The public can’t stand it when the Congress makes one rule for constituents and another for politicians. We must not set Congress and other elected officials apart from the way we treat business and industry. Instead of people being encouraged to get out and engage with candidates, they are being turned off from the entire process with ‘robo’ calls.”
“I am so pleased that Representative Foxx has taken the “do not robo call” pledge today,” said Shaun Dakin, founder and CEO of the NPDNC. “She has taken the first decisive step in what I believe to be the crucial effort of giving voters back their peace and quiet at home, as well as their privacy. Her constituents are fortunate to have her fighting for this cause in Washington.”
The NPDNC fills a void in the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) National Do Not Call (DNC) registry. Because the First Amendment protects political speech, political calls are specifically excluded from the DNC. While Americans have registered nearly 150 million phone numbers with the DNC, Georgetown University research determined that 3 out of 4 voters do not know that political calls are exempt from the DNC. This gaping loophole has become a national epidemic. In fact, The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 81 percent of Iowa caucus voters received automated (or “robo”) calls during November 2007.
“I started the registry to give voters back their sanity during election season,” said Dakin. “Many voters consider their homes to be a sanctuary and consider calls – especially the automated ‘robo’ calls – from politicians and political groups to be invasive. It’s so invasive, in fact, that the experience alone can turn people off from the entire electoral process. If the NPDNC can significantly reduce political calls during the 2008 election, we will have delivered an important win for the American family and for our political system overall.”
About Representative Virginia Foxx:
Dr. Virginia Foxx was reelected to her second term to represent North Carolina’s Fifth District in the United States House of Representatives in November 2006. She is the third woman in North Carolina history to serve in the U.S. House.
Dr. Foxx has established herself as a visible leader in the House of Representatives. She was also the first member of her class to introduce and pass a substantive bill in the House. Dr. Foxx serves on the House Committees on Agriculture, Government Reform, and Education and Labor.
Prior to serving on Capitol Hill, Foxx spent ten years in the North Carolina Senate where she successfully sponsored several statewide and local bills and consistently voted against tax increases and for legislation that would make governments more efficient and less wasteful.
About the National Political Do Not Contact Registry
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry is a program of Citizens for Civil Discourse (CCD), non-partisan,non-profit organization (federal 501(c)(3) status pending) dedicated to elevating political discussion in the United States. CCD is based on the premise that the decline of civility in American political dialogue has diminished our nation’s capacity to address urgent problems. Founder and CEO Shaun Dakin believes that citizen action is required to restore decency, respect and common sense to public debate in this country.
CCD created the National Political Do Not
Contact registry as a
first step towards its goal by reducing
unwanted political phone calls,
particularly automated messages (“robo” calls),
which frustrate and
annoy voters regardless of party and ultimately
reduce political
participation. Because the U.S.
Constitution protects political
speech, CCD advocates addressing this issue not
by enacting new
legislation but by encouraging voters to take
back control of the
political conversation and make free speech a
two-way exchange. Learn
more at www.StopPoliticalCalls.org
<http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org/> .
###
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING…
Members of the NPDNC list have said:
“In exempting themselves from the National Do Not Call Registry rules, the politicians only reinforced the widely-held belief they are more interested in their own interests than constituents' privacy.”
“These calls only annoy me and make me want to avoid the political process. These calls are every bit as annoying as the ones I already block with the (federal) "do not call" list. The fact that (politicians) have exempted (themselves) is arrogant.”
“If I receive a call from you, I will vote against you!”
“I refuse to vote for anyone who calls my home asking me to vote for them.”
“When I am harassed by telephone, it makes me want to vote for your opponent, who at least had the courtesy to leave me alone.”
“The calls got so intrusive from one candidate during the last Presidential election that I actually felt compelled to volunteer to work for the other one. Your calls had the exact OPPOSITE effect you desired. Keep it up and I'll start contributing money too!”
“These intrusive calls tend to discourage me from listening to, never mind voting for, the candidate. Also, if they leave a message on my answering machine, it's deleted before the message is even heard, so they may as well re-direct their campaign funds.”
